Qin Official

"Your Majesty!"

In mid-September in Shouchun, Huainan, as the autumn wind blows, the lotus leaves in the pond gradually wither, just like the national destiny of Chu State.

On the terraces and pavilions of the Chu Palace surrounded by lotus ponds, Xiang Yan had a hint of anger in his eyes: "It is really disrespectful to King Kaolie to allow such rumors to spread in the country. I hope the king can stop it!"

"Why does Shangzhu Kingdom do this?"

The King of Chu did not wear any ceremonial robes or court clothes. He only wore a Chu-style deep robe with a curved train. The belt was tied very high. The sleeves of the robe were nearly twice as wide as those of Qin in the Central Plains. The high crown on top was even more exaggerated, nearly a month. A foot and a half later, he stood up gracefully, helped Xiang Yan up, waved his wide sleeves, and asked the palace maids who had just been singing and dancing to step back. He then glanced at the wizard wearing a royal crown next to him, as well as the left and right disciples present. , Left and Right Sima and others laughed and said:

"Second Son, what are the rumors in the country? Why don't you know about it?"

"We don't know either."

Everyone tried their best to pretend not to know. In doing so, they were undoubtedly much smarter than Xiang Yan.

However, Xiang Yan's temperament was destined not to turn a blind eye to this matter. The veteran said again: "Many people in the country's market are spreading the story of 'flowering on the tree'. It is about Chun Shenjun and Li Yuan."

Has your Majesty never heard of the life experiences of Empress Li, Empress Li and King You of Chu? "

The King of Chu's expression suddenly froze while he was crouching, and his eyes moved elsewhere.

Xiang Yan became angry when she mentioned this matter. This rumor suddenly spread this year, but it was about something that happened more than thirty years ago.

They said that King Kaolie of Chu fled from Qin and succeeded to the throne after returning to Chen Ying. He only gave birth to daughters and could not give birth to sons. This made Lord Yin Chunshen Huang Xie worry about it, so he looked for a woman from Yizi to donate to Chu Kaolie. King, but never gave birth to a son.

Finally, Li Yuan, a Zhao man who had entrusted Chun Shenjun's connection, dedicated his sister to the Chu palace. Soon after, he gave birth to a son, named Xiong Han, and was made the prince by King Chu Kaolie. This was the later King Chu You...

However, those rumors added fuel to the fire and said that the prince Li Yuan gave birth to was actually not the son of King Chu Kaolie, but the son of Chun Shenjun Huang Xie! Even his younger brother, Xiong You, the later King of Chu Ai, was the result of Huang Xie's affair with Empress Li!

Rumors also include how Chun Shenjun begged for a daughter for King Kaolie of Chu, and how Li Yuan wanted to offer his sister but was worried that he would not be favored if he could not give birth to a son. In the end, he played hard to get and offered her to Huang Xie first. When the daughter was born, After she became pregnant, Li Yuan asked her sister to persuade Chun Shenjun by saying, "If a concubine has a son from Heaven, then the king's son will be the king, and the Chu Kingdom can have it."

All of this is said to have noses and eyes, and this is what is called "flowering on trees".

Even after the death of King Kaolie of Chu, the reason why Li Yuan ordered his retainers and assassins to set up an ambush at Thorny Gate to kill Chun Shenjun Huang Xie was because he was "afraid that Chun Shen Jun would be arrogant because of his words, and wanted to kill him to silence him."

This theory has been widely circulated in the market recently, and the common people and scholars are talking about it. However, in the ears of wise men such as Xiang Yan, it is full of loopholes.

Xiang Yan, who has experienced these things, knows very well that although Huang Xie, the king of Chunshen, became more and more confused as he got older and was accidentally killed by Li Yuan, he at least assisted the king of Chu to move eastward, allowing Chu State to expand wildly during the period of Qin and Zhao's struggle for balance, and destroy Lu. He and the princes of Sishang also managed Jiangdong and brought the Chu Kingdom to a temporary revival. He was also a famous official of his generation. How could he do such a thing to deceive the emperor?

As for whether King Chu Kaolie could give birth to a son? It is even more ridiculous that Xiong Qi, Lord of Changping, who was sent to Jiangdong by the King of Chu to train troops, is now the eldest son of King Kaolie!

"There are such ridiculous rumors!?"

The King of Chu stopped laughing, looked angry, looked at the ministers, slapped the table, and shouted angrily: "Why didn't anyone tell Bu Gu?"

All the ministers were speechless, but Wu Ling, who was favored by the King of Chu, stood up. While twisting his hands full of the fragrance of orchids, he said softly: "It seems to be the case, but..."

He showed a sly smile: "There is some truth in the rumors in the market. In my opinion, there is no need to rashly ban them. Now the Qin army has begun to prepare to attack Chu again. At this time, it is more important to defend the people than to defend the river. What happened to King Zhou Li must not be repeated."

"The words of the wizard are reasonable, but it is not beautiful to forcibly stop people from discussing. It is better to block than to open up."

The King of Chu looked relaxed and said nonchalantly: "Just leave the rumors to Zuo Tu to deal with. The Shangzhu Kingdom should focus on military affairs!"

Xiang Yan was silent. It was obvious that the people who spread this rumor just wanted to prove that both King Chu You and King Chu Ai were unfairly appointed to the throne. Only the current King of Chu was the bastard son of King Kaolie of Chu and his palace maid. , but the roots are growing!

In this case, the act of killing King Ai of Chu and Li Yuan with his followers four years ago, and the act of regicide and self-reliance has become clear...

Li Yuan's death was the result of the joint efforts of the Xiang family and the Zhao, Jing and Qu clans. But an action to chase away a villain from the king's side was eventually exploited and turned into regicide, which none of them expected.

Although in the Spring and Autumn Period, it was common for Chu princes to kill the king and establish themselves as a self-reliance, but with the strengthening of royal power in the Xuan and Wei eras, this was the first such incident, which really shocked the government and the public.

That year, Qin had just conquered Handan, destroyed Zhao, and captured the king of Zhao. For a long time, Qin's only strong enemy was Chu and Zhao. Zhao was dead, and Chu was about to face disaster. Since the dead king cannot be resurrected, Xiang Yan and the three tribes of Zhao, Jing and Qu can only pinch their noses and respect Cuo as king, hoping that he can carry the banner of resistance against Qin.

In the first few years of Chu's reign, King Chu was extremely cooperative, integrating various forces in the country. When Qin General Li Xin came to attack with an army of 200,000, he assigned Xiang Yan to fight a rumbling defense battle, and relied on Changping Jun Xiongqi turned against Chen Ying and finally reversed the situation of the war, achieving an unprecedented victory for the Chu army over Qin!

The Chinese even compared this battle to five hundred years ago when Jingchu counterattacked Zhou's attack and caused King Zhou Zhao to drown in the Han River!

The Xiang family recreated Jingchu! They all preach this.

Xiang Yan's reputation was unparalleled for a time; Changping Lord also ranked among the imperial concubines and was loved by the people of the country.

However, the King of Chu became a little uneasy. As soon as the Qin army retreated and the Chu state was able to breathe, he began to let his cronies occupy important positions in the court, consolidate power, and did not hesitate to send people to spread rumors and slander the past king's life experience.

The King of Chu was afraid that the Xiang family and the three families of Zhao, Jing and Qu would depose him as if supporting his own succession. He could not rest in the warm spring breeze of Huainan, always feeling the shadow of the ax swinging on his neck.

"There is no ax at all!" Xiang Yan wanted to tell his king that at this moment, what is needed is to abandon all old grudges and unite the nobles and common people of the Chu State to defend against the enemy, rather than just to settle old issues and prove his position through underhanded means. Zhizheng...

"In this case, I... this veteran will no longer have anything to do with this matter."

Xiang Yan suppressed his dissatisfaction and anger, and the Shangzhu State bowed its head. This time the Qin army came with a fierce force, even worse than last year. The Chu State could not be in chaos again!

He pretended not to have heard those rumors and turned to talk about today's business: intelligence from Wei!

"Your Majesty, the commander of the Qin Army already knows that he is Wang Jian!"

"Wang Jian!?"

As soon as these words came out, the kings and ministers of the Chu Kingdom suddenly lost their mood to enjoy the autumn scenery. They all looked at each other with timidity...

Xiang Yan was also filled with emotion. He remembered the young man he met in Xianyang Palace when he went to Qin State with Lord Chun Shen to pay homage to the temple thirty years ago. Wang Jian and Xiang Yan met and talked, and they had a vague feeling that they might become enemies.

However, in the past thirty years, they could only hear about each other's outstanding achievements from a distance, but they always passed each other. Who would have thought that the day of the showdown would finally come!

"This battle is related to the survival of Chu State!"

I don’t know how many times Xiang Yan said this. Since when did the Chu Kingdom win every battle and never lose?

However, what his opponent Wang Jian possesses is the tiger talisman that King Qin's entire army has secured. Even though he is a little suspicious, he has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians at his disposal to use at will, and he has Qin's accumulated victory power of more than a hundred years to rely on.

What do you have?

Looking at the ministers who forgot about their worries and resumed singing and feasting on the stage after just a short breath. Seeing the king who was bent on smearing the late king and who looked horrified after hearing that the golden drum was approaching, Xiang Yan could only sigh.

"I have only an army of fear and doubt!"

…

In late September, the Qin people's 600,000-strong army, under the command of Wang Jian, gradually approached the front line on the Qin-Chu border. Chu State also mobilized in a hurry to begin to deal with this disaster that was a year late...

And Heifu and other Nanjun soldiers, under the command of Captain Li You, also gathered with soldiers from Ba, Shu, Hanzhong, and Nanyang to the line of Shangcai and Yangcheng! The general who leads this corps is Meng Wu!

Shangcai is Li You's hometown, and the place where Heifu and the others once fought is not far from here.

Just before the army was about to enter the Shangcai camp, Heifu rode his horse to the side and pointed to the east, facing his coachman Sang Mu, five hundred masters Dongmen Bao and Li Xian, one hundred personal guards Xiao Tao, herald Ji Ying, and others who had already arrived. Gong Ao and others, who had become Yan County's Hundred Generals but always liked to hang out with them, said: "It's over there! One hundred and fifty miles away!"

Everyone followed Hei Fu's riding whip and looked east. Even though their gazes would be stretched infinitely, they would eventually be obscured by the solid defense line built by the Chu army in Pingyu City...

After Pingyu, there is Linyang! They will never forget the battlefield, the place where hundreds of soldiers shed their blood.

"Huaimu, I still have two or three sons. I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

Hei Fu's eyes were firm, as if he had penetrated a space of more than a hundred miles, and saw the simple cemetery filled with Qin swords.

"This time, I'll take you home!"